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Tax Preparers

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Prepare tax returns for individuals or small businesses.

Related: Accountants & Auditors Bookkeeping, Accounting, & Auditing Clerks Credit Counselors Personal Financial Advisors Tax Examiners & Collectors, & Revenue Agents

Industries: Professional, Science, & Technical

Summary
Details

Explain federal and state tax laws to individuals and companies.
Interview clients to obtain additional information on taxable income and deductible expenses and allowances.
Answer questions and provide future tax planning to clients.
Use all appropriate adjustments, deductions, and credits to keep clients' taxes to a minimum.
Calculate form preparation fees according to return complexity and processing time required.
Prepare or assist in preparing simple to complex tax returns for individuals or small businesses.
Furnish taxpayers with sufficient information and advice to ensure correct tax form completion.
Compute taxes owed or overpaid, using adding machines or personal computers, and complete entries on forms, following tax form instructions and tax tables.
Check data input or verify totals on forms prepared by others to detect errors in arithmetic, data entry, or procedures.
Answer questions and provide future tax planning to clients.
Review financial records, such as income statements and documentation of expenditures to determine forms needed to prepare tax returns.
Schedule appointments with clients.
Consult tax law handbooks or bulletins to determine procedures for preparation of atypical returns.

Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.

Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.

Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

1 to 12 months on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

45120/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

21.69/hr

Currently Employed

2,020

Yearly Projected Openings

270

Conventional: People interested in this work like activities that include data, detail, and regular routines. They do well at jobs that need:

Cautiousness
Integrity
Attention to Detail
Dependability
Achievement Orientation
Cooperation

Desktop calculator
Desktop computers
Notebook computers

Accounting software
Calendar and scheduling software
Compliance software
Data base user interface and query software
Document management software
Electronic mail software
Financial analysis software
Human resources software
Internet browser software
Office suite software
Project management software
Spreadsheet software
Tax preparation software
Web page creation and editing software
Word processing software

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